Blueprint Offered For Cleaner Lakes

LANSING, MICH. — The Greenpeace environmental organization is telling state officials that toxic pollution of the Great Lakes can be eliminated without shutting down vital industries.

``This is not a short-term plan. This is going to take many years,``

Lauri Roberts, a spokesman for Greenpeace, said at a press conference called Thursday to introduce the group`s 10-point proposal on pollution.

The organization, which has been protesting Dow Chemical Co.`s waste-handling procedures, also released a letter to Michigan Natural Resources Director Ronald Skoog that said Dow was among the largest toxic polluters in the world.

``Any clean-up in the Great Lakes basin is impossible without first calling a halt to the continued production and disposal of toxic chemical wastes,`` the Greenpeace letter said. ``Recognizing the economic importance of this area`s chemical industry, our priority must be to ensure continued chemical production, but associated with an end to the production of toxic wastes.``

The proposal, which Greenpeace planned to present to the state Toxic Substances Control Commission, calls for putting producers of toxic waste on a schedule to reduce their discharges and emissions to zero.

Other elements of the plan include:

-- Requiring industries to use closed-loop waste systems or those that do not send pollution into the environment, as part of their operations.

-- Separating hazardous waste streams where they are generated and using recycling to reclaim usable materials.